Date Completed: October 22, 2007
Time spent making: The editing part took me anywhere from a month and a half to two months, working at least five hours a day, but stopping for a couple of days every now and then when the frustration got overwhelming
Programs used: AviSynth, VirtualDubMod, Sony Vegas 6.0, Photoshop, Camtasia Studio 4, Morpheus Photo Morpher
Length: 3:27 not including credits and 4:02 including credits

About:Ouran High School Never Ends is undoubtedly my most complex and hardest project yet! I am happy with how it came out. ^_^ I somehow managed to take the exact ideas from my mind and put them into action. It was finished in October of last year, but I was praying for it to be able to premiere at an Anime Convention.

How I got my idea and preparing for the project:I got the idea for this AMV one morning while driving to work last spring (See? Going to work can be a good thing! XD). I was scanning the radio stations for any good songs playing. I stopped the station when "High School Never Ends" by Bowling For Soup came on. I listened to the song lyrics and right away I was getting ideas. I definitely couldn't concentrate on work as much that day! Ideas of all different High-School themed anime shows were running through my head. At first I thought doing a various anime video would be a good idea, but I knew I could make it work with just one anime. The anime was Ouran High School Host Club. Ouran High reflects the song so perfectly that it's almost scary! I am so glad I stuck with using only one anime. Not only did I exceed my own expectations, I was able to challenge myself and get more creative with editing. I learned more tricks while editing this video than I thought I could ever learn!

Although I worked on the final version for about a month and a half to two months, I began this AMV sometime at the beginning of summer 2007. I was in the middle of learning AviSynth and VirtualDubMod for better visual quality and better compression for distributing. Me, being not-so-computer savvy, had more than a difficult time trying to figure them out (I still don't have it down! ^^;). Once I had gotten at least the basics down, I converted segments and experimented with the harder parts of the song before I actually began the project. I made many drafts of the effects, but learning took me a long time. A lot of the effects and editing in my mind were things I did not know how to do yet, so I kept practicing until I finally got the hang of the harder parts during my spare time. Once I was done experimenting, I began the project... -FILE CORRUPTION- I began the project again... -UNKNOWN ERROR WITH PROJECT FILE- and yet again... -Vegas Closes Without Warning-. So there I was, stuck with only about 25 seconds of the AMV complete for a third time after so much effort timing the beginning. I realized that a more complex project was something that my old computer could just not handle. I began losing my high spirits about the video after I found out I couldn't edit again for a while since I would be moving to a new state. When my family and I were finally moved in about a month and a half later, I sought out for a new computer. My spirits were brought back up again when I thought of getting a custom built computer. That's exactly what I did. I bought a new computer suited for my needs that would be perfect for AMV making. Before I knew it, I was back on my project again.

Effects, Etc.:This project called for A LOT of frame-by-frame manipulation, more than I ever thought I'd get accomplished! This included masking and editing out/adding in extra lip flap and at a couple of points, whole different facial expressions. (Mori's edited-in goofy expression during the "Oh" parts always cracks me up ='D) Besides the frame-by-frame editing and masking, I concentrated mostly on simple synced cuts and effects like white flashes. I used a couple of transitions, but only where I thought they would work out. However, the instrumental part is heavier on effects and transitions such as flashing, moving keyframes, borders, and chroma keying.

Overall Editing:I was very stressed out at the time of making this, getting adjusted to a new area and all,
and there was a time when I didn't think I would finish it. I managed to get through it and I am thankful for that! Overall, the time period I actually worked on Ouran High School Never Ends was about four months.

Editing this, I ended up being in Photoshop nearly as much as Vegas. There were so many minor and major things I had to edit. I'm not the best with Photoshop, so sometimes I'd edit what I could with Photoshop and then use Vegas for the rest. As for Vegas, I knew a good amount of the program, but hadn't yet done such a complex project with it.

I had used Morpheus Morpher and Camtasia before, so while a little time consuming, those (surprisingly short) segments I edited with those programs weren't as difficult. ^^

Most difficult parts:-I think one of the hardest parts was 2:16-2:20 with the CD player. I spent days trying to get it to look the way I wanted it to. The words were either tilted too much, too little, didn't fit the radio... and countless other problems. And then there was figuring out how I would type it out. I considered using all of "01. Bowling For Soup - High School Never Ends" but all of the words would have had to go by lightning speed if I wanted to show them all the way through. I never thought four seconds of a video could be as stressful as that was. I almost gave up, but I'm very happy I didn't. I think I may have shed a tear or two of happiness when I finally managed to get it to work. ='D
-The second hardest part was at about 1:46. What I thought would just be a fairly easy job of editing in Google as if Kyouya was typing it... was anything but. It wasn't the Google search itself that was difficult; it was getting it to fit on a computer screen in the series! Of all the computer screen shots in the anime with Kyouya typing in something, none of them seemed to "fit" my Google "screen" right. No matter how I changed the aspect ratio, it decided that it was going to be mean to me (T_T). It wanted to appear too crooked, almost like the words on the CD player. I finally managed to get it to work after about three or four days of fussing around with it.

Fun facts and things you may not notice your first time watching:-The flashes at the beginning from 00:01-00:06 are set up to be the same colors of each character’s rose color as the character appears (Tamaki-Red, Mori-Purple, Honey-Pink, Hikaru and Kaoru-Blue and Orange/Peach, Kyouya-Lavender, and Haruhi-Red).
-The characters' photos at about 1:05 replace their original photos in the same picture frames in episode 15.
-The joke with Honey being crushed about Mori being straight was something I just couldn't resist putting in. =P Behind Honey who was thinking "But he can't be!" is "evidence" of this "relationship" or daydreams of it (whichever way you want to interpret it). I thought adding it in would not only add comedy (seeing Honey react this way over Mori XD) but it would emphasize how rumors start in High School.
-At about 1:50 the words "Football Play" are edited on the board as if Tamaki was instructing the football team (or should I say can-kicking team?) on a how to do a certain play.
-1:52 just didn't seem complete without money showing when money was being mentioned in the song. At that point, there are coins from the show falling off the screen. Can you believe that an anime taking place at a super rich school actually shows money only once throughout the entire series (The twins' broken piggybank in episode 20)?
-I considered editing in a 02. instead of a 01. playing on the radio at about 2:16 because that's the track number of High School Never Ends on Bowling For Soup's CD "The Great Burrito Extortion Case." I settled for track one because the girl near the radio was only just turning the CD player on... automatically starting at track two wouldn't have made much sense.

Celebrities and how they're similar to the characters:There is no doubt that the characters relate to the celebrities mentioned in the songs in plenty of ways! When choosing a character for each celebrity I took into account their personality and roles, rather than just looks. Most of them were easy, but I toggled back and forth between deciding on using Kazukiyo or Kyouya for Bill Gates since Kazukiyo looks a great deal like Bill Gates. I'm very sure I made the right decision. ;) The only other slight difficulty I had choosing was When Jessica came up in the song. The first celebrity that came to mind is Jessica Simpson. However, no one in the series is as bubble-headed as she is and since Jessica could refer to the many other celebrities out there with the same first name such as Jessica Alba, I decided I'd go with Jessica Biel. She's played a couple of tough girls in movie roles and she has that look in her eyes sometimes like Ayanokoji does when she is jealous. That made it perfect.

If you want more information on this, feel free to send me a message. :)

Chorus:
The whole damn world is just as obsessed
With who's the best dressed and who's having sex
Who's in the club and who's on the drugs
Who's throwing up before they digest

And you still don't have the right look
And you don't have the right friends
And you still listen to the same [sh--] you did back then

High School Never Ends
Oh Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh
High School Never Ends

*Solo*

Chorus:
The whole damn world is just as obsessed
With who‘s the best dressed and who‘s having sex
Who‘s got the money. Who gets the honeys,
Who‘s kinda cute and who‘s just a mess

And I still don't have the right look
And I still have the same 3 friends
And I'm pretty much the same as I was back then

High School Never Ends
Oh Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh
High School Never Ends

Oh Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh
High School Never Ends

Oh Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh
Here We Go Again

Oh Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh Oh Oh-Oh"

Thanks to:-Eric for helping me out emotionally through this video. I was going through a rough time, but he kept cheering me on and telling me I could do it especially on the hardest parts.
-Istiv Studios for making the video "Shounen Bushidou - Spirit Never Dies." It's an inspiring video and helped perk me up when I didn't think I could accomplish this AMV. Their video proves that with enough work, anything is possible! ^_^
-The helpful people on this site and the awesome guides. I got the information I needed!

Thank you all!

Now finally...

Important note about downloading:Please download the MP4 file instead of the XviD if possible since it's much smaller in size, will take less time for you to download, has better video and audio quality and plays a lot smoother. ^_^ It's very simple to get it to play on your computer (If for some reason you can't already). You can do either of the two below:

If you prefer not to install codecs there are some media players out there that can play many different types of files without codecs. These types of players are great for any of you who watch soft-subbed anime footage! I suggest:

VLC Player - Most commonly used for MP4, OGM, and MKV files, easy to use. I recommend this one.KMPlayer - Excellent player. It plays files without codecs and even allows you to change the style and words of softsubs.

The local is the MP4 version and the indirect is a RapidShare link for the XviD. If the link expires for the XviD, please let me know and I will upload it ASAP.

Again, I ask all of you who download my videos kindly, please, please do not upload them to other websites like YouTube. I would appreciate it so much if no one does that! ^_^

I hope you enjoy the video! Any quick comments or opinions will make me happy.

Opinions (24)

Downloads

LinkFormatBitrateCodecDurationFilesizeLink Check InformationComments

IndirectAVI (.avi) 192kbps DX50/MP3 04:01:00 88MB Last Checked:2008-09-02 14:53:19200OK
Please do not download this version unless you really cannot get the MP4 (Local) to work. This version has less video and audio quality, is a much larger file, and may not play back as smoothly. If the link expires, please let me know and I will re-upload it for you right away! ^_^